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Standing at the edge of the Shadow’s street, I watch aswitches are mowed down by rapid gunfire. They won’t use magic out in the open, and no one has cared to put up a ward to hide their activities from the humans. Any proper fighting will be inside the homes, and the police aren’t foolish enough to get in the way of one of our wars. They will wait until it’s over before rushing in like the cowards they are.

The Shadow Domain is finished.

Though even if it’s not, my revenge is over. Sau and her line is dead.

Turning away from the street,I head home.

But I can never head back to Siome.

Forty-Five

CADEN

4 NOVEMBER 1962

“Put the damn bottle down!” Myers shouts as he rushes into my bedroom. He throws the covers off my lap, yanks the bottle of whiskey out of my hand despite my protest, andhauls me tomy feet. I sway, the world spinning in my alcoholic haze.

Cursing, he drags me to the cupboard in the ensuite.Shoving me down onto my knees, he nudges me in the ass with his foot, forcing me to curl beneath the bottom shelf.“Just hide in here and don’t come out.”

I start to protest,wanting the comfort of my bottle, but he slams the door in my face. I sit there, unable to figure out how to move my legs. I want the bottle. It helps keep Sau’s memories away.

Tears flowing down my cheeks, I reach for the door. I need the bottle. I need its sweet embrace.

The sound of grunts and breaking bones comes from theother side of the cupboard door. I peek through the slats to see myself on the other side.

No, not me.

Myers just shapeshifted to looklikeme. He hurries out of view. There’s the rummage of fabric against fabric.

I struggle with the door handle before I manage to open it. “What are you –”

He’s wearing my dirty clothes, having pulled a vomit-stained shirt out of the basket. The pants are wrinkled.

“Doing?”

“Just stay in there and shut up!” He marches over and shuts the door in my face.

My brain struggles to connect the thoughts. All I can think about is the bottle he took from me. “I want…”

“Oh, for fuck’s sake! Fine!”

He comes back a moment later. The door is yanked open. Sighing, he crouches down in front of me.

He doesn’t look like I did before Sau died. He looks like how I do now. Haggard bags under bloodshot eyes. Sweat-slick hair stuck to his face. He looks sickly and poor and he’s lost so much weight…

With a shaky hand, I take the bottle.

“I love you, Caden,” he says, pulling me into a hug. I protest his interruption to my drink, and he looks at me with the saddest eyes.

Then he’s standing. The door shuts. And he’s gone.

Uncorking the bottle, I raise it to my lips.

The bang of a door slamming into a wall causes me to jerk, and the golden liquid spills all down my shirt. I start to mutter, but a man’s voice, loud and angry, cuts me off.

“The great Caden is going to die in his fucking bed. A fitting end for a coward.”

My brow furrows as I recognize that voice. Garrett, my once son-in-law, is making a play for power. I promised him a good seat at the table by marrying Molly, but now she’sgone.